Saturday, August 1, 2009

Peace Pipeline

Glenn Greenwald writes about a deal that seems to have been brokered 'twixt Fox News and MSNBC to tone down the attacks some on each channel have hurled at the other. In particular, says Greenwald, Keith Olbermann has toned down his mentions of Bill O'Reilly in light of this new understanding.

That might not sound improper and if it had been done for the sake of civility, it might even be admirable. But Greenwald says it was done because the invective seemed to be harming the corporate interests of the respective parent companies. One wonders if when he returns from vacation — this Monday, I believe — Mr. Olbermann will feel the need to prove he is not a signatory to this deal.

• Posted at 3:20 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Jonathan Alter explains to us how great our present health care system works.

• Posted at 1:32 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

This is my buddy Marv Wolfman on a local TV show in San Diego during the Comic-Con. Marv was up way too early and faced with not-the-most-relevant questions but he did a good job.

What I really wish I could embed was a clip of the time Marv was on The Joe Franklin Show in New York. Marv had written a special Teen Titans comic book on the subject of teen drug use. As I recall, he was against it. Anyway, the issue got a lot of publicity and Marv was asked to do many talk shows because of it. I have no idea how he wound up on Mr. Franklin's program, which dealt mainly with nostalgia and old show biz.

Now, you have to picture this. Marv is about 33 years old (I'm guessing) and Joe Franklin is his usual age, which is a hundred and twenty-seven. Mr. Franklin has zero interest in comic books, drugs, titans or even teens...but being an old pro, he fires a few questions at Marv, then a few at this other guests, then a few more at Marv, then a few more at the other guests...

And it's finally getting down near the end of the show, which is live. Someone signals Franklin that he has time for one more question so he turns to his young comic book writer guest. "Marv Wolfman," he says. "Eddie Cantor...any anecdotes?"

He actually said that. Here's an appearance by Marv that went a little better than that one...

• Posted at 12:34 AM · LINK

Go Read It!

This is from last November but I just now saw it. It's a profile of Teller (of Penn &...) by Richard Abowitz.

• Posted at 12:17 AM · LINK